DURANT, Okla.—To Janie Semple Umsted, the clean, white fabric in front of her contained an image of a significant event in American Indian history, and she had the tools to bring that image out.
She’s the kind of woman any grandchild knows has a stick of gum, a tissue, or change for an impulse candy purchase in her purse. She’s also a nationally recognized painter and sculptor dedicated to preserving the culture and history of the Choctaw people.
Ms. Umsted is a direct descendant of two Choctaw chiefs and has been steeped in everything Choctaw since she was a girl. Her art reflects her love and respect for her tribe and culture. Her son, Aaron Umsted, said art and community have always been essential parts of his mother’s life.
Art Can Improve the World
Mr. Umsted is an accomplished actor-musician who has worked on stage in New York and Chicago and is currently directing a youth musical for the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival (OSF). He credits his mother’s passion for art and her encouragement with his own artistic success. Her example helped him understand the critical role that art plays in the community.Whether through painting, music, or theater, Mr. Umsted said his mother showed him how he can help improve the world he lives in.
“I think if we didn’t have art, we would be less empathetic, and we wouldn’t be able to express ourselves in a way that would create community and create unity in the world,” he told The Epoch Times.
Empathy is part of what Ms. Umsted aims for when she portrays the challenges the Choctaw people have faced throughout history.
Standing in her studio on May 20, she told The Epoch Times how she projected the image in her mind onto the fabric using a paintbrush, a cast iron skillet full of molten wax, and fabric dye.
The wax must be just the right temperature, 220 degrees. If it’s too hot, it will “spread like water, and I don’t want that,” she said. If it is too cool, it clumps.
The technique is called batik. It was developed on the island of Java, off Indonesia, to decorate fabric. She learned batik while in college in the late 1960s. After more than 50 years of practicing the art, she has developed a style.
As she describes it, it’s kind of like painting by numbers—except there are no numbers and no pictures to use as a guide. Rather than applying paint where she wants color, wax is used to block color from where it’s not needed. She then dyes the fabric, removes the wax when the dye has set, and applies wax in other areas for the next dye session.
The finished piece, entitled “Night Journey,” depicts Choctaws walking through a cold winter night.
It’s her impression of what white settlers might have seen on a winter night between 1830 and 1838 after the so-called Five Civilized Tribes were forced from their homes in the southeastern United States by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The image is haunting, like a hazy memory or a waking dream. Studying the piece, one can almost hear the people softly weeping as they shuffle through the snow toward an uncertain future.
It’s a story that every Choctaw child hears at least once in his or her life, and most hear it many times.
Ms. Umsted was no different. The story is so important that it was the subject of her first major work for the Choctaw Nation.
In the historic Choctaw Tribal Capitol at Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, hangs a 16-by-7-foot mural depicting the Trail of Tears. The painting, displayed on the second floor of the Capitol, shows the Choctaws leaving the green and fertile land of Mississippi and traveling through the bitter cold of winter to the wilderness of present-day Oklahoma.
Choctaw Chief Gary Batton told The Epoch Times it was a pivotal moment in Native American history, proving the resilience and strength of the Choctaw people.
Even though the story is, at its core, sad and tragic, Ms. Umsted said she used bright colors.
She made this choice to show that the sad story has a happy element. The Choctaws have prospered since relocation and are now an economic and political force in the new land that used to be known as “Indian Territory.”
Inspired by Traditional Art
Her Choctaw lineage is through her father, a prominent veterinarian with whom she was very close. Her mother was an artist who came from a family of artists. The family lived in Durant, Oklahoma, which has been the epicenter of Choctaw politics and culture for many years.“[My father] made a point to take us to powwows, and we went to Anadarko, where there were Indian exhibitions that were a really big thing in Oklahoma in the ‘50s,” she told The Epoch Times.
Although she grew up surrounded by Choctaw art, she became especially enthralled with the Native American genre during a New Mexico vacation when she was in the fifth grade. She said she was overwhelmed by the vibrancy and energy exuded by the Native American art in Taos and Santa Fe.
“I'd never been to such a place before, and I’m still this way today when I go there. I was just struck by that place. It was very, very impactful for me,” she said.
She began art lessons at an early age and sold her first painting when she was 16. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, she was hired to teach art in Durant’s public schools. Ms. Umsted says teaching enabled her to pursue her true vocation and pay her bills.
Others say it also expanded her influence on her community.
Founding a Museum of Art
Riley Risso Coker is the producing director of the OSF. A lifelong resident of Durant and a product of its public schools, she doesn’t remember a time that she didn’t know Ms. Umsted. She told The Epoch Times that Ms. Umsted has served on the OSF board for the past 15 years.During that time, she helped ensure that thousands of Durant’s children had the opportunity to participate in summer theater. Ms. Umsted has used her artistic eye to improve set design and handle OSF’s business as a member of the Board of Directors.
Ms. Coker said that between the classroom and the stage, Ms. Umsted has built a legacy that will ensure art will continue to be an essential part of her community.
“I think that her impact from teaching has had a ripple effect. I think these kids remember her teaching there and got involved in other artistic endeavors or stayed with the art because of her,” she said.
Ms. Umsted wants those former students and their families to have access to Native American art. So, she has opened the Semple Family Museum of Native American Art on the campus of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma. The museum features her art along with pieces by other Native American artists.
The museum began with 93 pieces that she jokes about obtaining under exciting circumstances.
In the early 1990s, she was handling public relations for the college when she was told about an art collection that the owner was willing to donate. She had no place to put the art, and it was already in a museum in a nearby town, but she knew the art needed to be preserved.
She arranged to meet the potential donor at the other museum to select pieces to be donated. She met the donor in a container-filled back room of the museum. The donor told her to start making selections. Ms. Umsted noticed that the donor was standing in front of a door and seemed to be in a hurry.
It dawned on Ms. Umsted that the donor was guarding the door, and it was then that Ms. Umsted realized the museum management might not have known what was going on.
“She would give me about 20 seconds to decide [on a piece],” Ms. Umsted said.
At the end of the visit, she brought 93 pieces of American Indian art back to Durant. Those remained in storage for more than 30 years as she worked with the college to find a home for the art. In 2022, the Semple Family Museum officially opened, and all 93 pieces were displayed together for the first time.
“It was a lot of fun,” Ms. Umsted said of the museum opening.
She believes the museum’s mission goes beyond displaying works of art. It is a means of preserving the cultural heritage of American Indians.
Chief Batton agreed. He pointed out that Ms. Umsted’s work can be found in communities around the state, the Choctaw Tribal headquarters, and in her hometown of Durant.
He said Ms. Umsted’s work doesn’t just record past tribal history. Her depictions of modern Choctaw culture will ensure future generations will remember today as well as yesterday.
